Apple to Unveil New M5 "AI Macs" & Budget Model
Among the products expected in this week's launch are new MacBooks featuring M5 Pro and M5 Max chips, dubbed "AI Macs." Apple is also expected to release a new budget MacBook model, targeting a wider market segment.
The M5 chip continues a strategic pivot that began in June 2020 with the announcement of the transition away from Intel processors. That move, framed as a two-year plan, ultimately took three years to complete and was driven by the goal of delivering higher performance with lower power consumption while gaining full control over the hardware roadmap. The "AI Macs" branding is substantiated by significant advancements in the Neural Engine. The M4 chip's Neural Engine was capable of 38 trillion operations per second, a figure touted as being 60 times faster than the first Neural Engine in the A11 Bionic chip. This provides a specific performance metric to anchor the AI-centric messaging, a key communication tactic. This focus on AI directly addresses a competitive market, with rivals like AMD heavily promoting their "AI PC" platforms. Apple has
